


The Broken and Beaten

by I_O_U_an_apple



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Broomsticks, Draco doesn't have a nice family, Draco doesn't have friends, Drarry, Eventual Drarry, F/M, Friendship, Harry helps Draco, Harry is his only good friend, Hogwarts, M/M, Magic, Quidditch, Trust, caring!harry, fearful!Draco, magical mishaps, shy!Draco
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-26
Updated: 2015-01-26
Packaged: 2018-03-09 05:50:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3238652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_O_U_an_apple/pseuds/I_O_U_an_apple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry is in his first year and Hogwarts, and becomes close friends with Draco, they are inseparable. But Harry knows very little about the real Draco, Draco won't tell him. He won't tell anyone. After what he has experienced, nothing will break him again. But something happens which forces him to confide in someone, and he'll choose Harry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Broken and Beaten

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters that are written about in this. J.K. Rowling owns them all.

The Hogwarts Express came to a halt at Hogsmeade station. It was very dark, so it must be quite late, thought Harry. It was raining, quite a lot. The first years, all wearing their school robes by now, were collected from the train by a large man that Harry knew as Hagrid. Hagrid was the one who told Harry he was a wizard, and that he had a place at Hogwarts. Hagrid led them to the edge of a giant lake, and to a group of little rowing boats tethered to the edge of the lake.  
"Okay, I wan' four in every boat!" Hagrid bellowed.  
Ron and Hermione, who Harry had sat with on the train, got into the boat first. Hermione's already curly hair now looked like a bush on the top of her head, as it had been attacked by the rain and wind. Harry was about to join them in the boat, but he caught sight of a small boy looking cold and wet, and very lost.  
"Hey," Harry waved to the boy. "Do you want to come with us?"  
The boy looked over to Harry, and slowly began to walk over to him.  
"Thank you," the boy said very quietly as he climbed into the boat. Harry got in behind and sat down next to him.  
"I'm Harry," he said, "what's your name?"  
"D-Draco," Draco said through chattering teeth, he was shivering violently.  
Harry took off his school robes and draped them over Draco's shoulders. He quickly moved away.  
"No, it's fine, take them," Harry insisted, pushing the robes into his hands. "I don't feel cold, and you're shivering."  
"Th-thank y-you," Draco said, pulling Harry's robes tight around his shoulders. Harry felt him move slightly closer again, probably to share some of Harry's warmth.  
-  
It took them about fifteen minutes to cross the lake in the boats. When they reached the other side, Draco was shivering even worse than before. Harry remembered about the thick jumper that he was wearing before he changed into his robes that was still in his bag.  
"Here, Draco," he said, pulling the jumper from his bag. "Put this on under your robes."  
Draco gratefully accepted the jumper, quickly pulling it on.  
After a few minutes of following Hagrid up a steep hill, they reached a door into the Castle.  
"Here we are!" Hagrid shouted, happily.  
"Finally," he heard Ron mutter.  
They followed Hagrid along long candlelit hallways and up small stone staircases.  
"These are the dungeons," Hagrid told them as they walked along. "Some of your Potions lessons will be held down here."  
They continued on, until they reached the grand Entrance Hall, and Hagrid led them along a long narrow corridor.  
"And that," he pointed through the corridor wall, "is the Great Hall, that's where we are going."  
"Come along, Hagrid!" An impatient female voice spoke.  
"Coming, Professor," said Hagrid, as he turned to hurry them all along.  
"I am Professor McGonagall."  
The voice spoke again, although Harry was too far back in the crowd to see who the voice belonged to. "Please form an orderly queue and be quiet," she instructed.  
They did as they were told and then the queue began to follow Professor McGonagall into the Great Hall.  
Harry felt someone tap him on the shoulder, and spun around to face Draco holding out his robes and jumper.  
"Oh thank you," he said as he took them from Draco's outstretched arms. "I'd forgotten."  
Draco laughed nervously, and Harry grinned at him.  
"What house do you want to be in?" Harry asked Draco quietly.  
"Um..." Draco hesitated. "I don't know any of the houses," he explained sadly. "I don't know anything about this place..."  
"It's okay! I'll teach you everything I know," Harry smiled confidently.  
Draco smiled back in response, it was the brightest smile Harry had ever seen.  
"Boys, shhh," Hagrid reminded them as they filed past him and into the Great Hall.  
It really did live up to it's name. It was the biggest room Harry had even stood in. There were four tables, the length of the Hall itself, which were filled with students on either side, studying the first years with curious expressions. There were hundreds of candles floating in the air above the tables, lighting up the whole hall. At the far end of the hall, there were four giant flags, each with a different animal and in a different colour, and each one representing a different house. Then Harry noticed the ceiling. It didn't even look like there was a ceiling, there were stars twinkling above them in a dark night sky, with a beautiful, glowing moon. On Harry's other side, there was the staff table, facing all the students. Harry saw Dumbledore, wearing velvet robes of deep blue with little stars on them. Professor McGonagall was standing at the front of the Hall, next to a tall stool and she held in her hand a pointy wizard's hat.  
"Welcome, first years, to Hogwarts," McGonagall began. "We trust you enjoyed your journey here, and have met some of your fellow students. Now we shall begin the Sorting."  
A cheer rose from the students.  
"Hannah Abbott."  
A girl made her way up to the stool, sat down, and McGonagall placed the hat upon her head.  
"Hufflepuff!" It cried happily.  
A gasp from the first years at the Hat's sudden ability to speak was drowned out by the massive cheer that rose from the Hufflepuff table.  
The list continued. Harry glanced to his side at Draco, and saw that he looked scared.  
"You okay?" Harry asked, nudging him gently.  
"Um...a b-bit nervous," Draco trailed off, his voice shaky. "There're so many people here."  
"It'll be okay, we'll be sitting down soon." Harry gave Draco a reassuring pat on his arm.  
-  
After some time, Professor McGonagall called out  
"Draco Malfoy."  
He looked at Harry, the panic evident in his eyes.  
"You'll be fine," Harry said, smiling. "Go on."  
Draco took a deep breath. He made his way towards the wobbly stool and clambered onto it. The Sorting Hat rested on his nose, completely covering his eyes, and looking, Harry thought, rather absurd, as it was so big. It was then that Harry realised how small and pale Draco actually was, even compared to himself, and he'd been locked up in a cupboard for half of his life.  
"Gryffindor!" The Sorting Hat joyfully cried out to the hall, and a loud cheer rose from the Gryffindor table.  
Nearly-Headless Nick, the Gryffindor Ghost, floated up to greet Draco, as he sat down quietly, not lifting his eyes from the ground the entire time.  
-  
"Harry Potter." After what felt like an hour, his name was called out. He sat on the stool and the Sorting Hat was placed on his head. It began muttering to him...  
"Hmm, you are a tricky one...very tricky indeed. You would do so well in Slytherin..." The Hat continued it's deliberations, until finally, after Harry pleaded it, it announced "GRYFFINDOR!"  
Harry began to walk towards the Gryffindor table, and took a seat next to Draco.  
"See, I told you everything would be okay," Harry said as Draco looked up at him.  
"Thank you, Harry," Draco said.  
-  
They enjoyed the feast that followed, then Professor Dumbledore, stood and silence fell over the Great Hall.  
Once Dumbledore had finished speaking, everyone got up from their seats, making their way towards the huge doors that lead out to the marble staircase. It took them a long time to finally get to the stairs, but when they reached it, the Gryffindor first years were greeted by a boy much older than themselves.  
"Okay, welcome to Gryffindor, everyone," he said. "I'm Oliver Wood, in my seventh and last year here. You will all have a brilliant time and make some life long friends, I can guarantee it. Now, if you'd all follow me, it's about a ten minute walk to the Common Room. The password is 'Parchment', which you must all remember in order to gain access to it. Keep up, I'm not coming looking for any of you that get lost."  
The stairs. Harry had to stop and stare at them for a moment to believe that what he was seeing was real. Entire staircases were moving, connecting to other corridors and stairs whenever they wanted. They even moved when people were attempting to climb them.  
"Wow," he heard Draco take a deep breath next to him. "This is going to be so confusing..."  
"We need a map of this place," exclaimed Harry.  
"I wonder what happens if we are late for lessons because we got lost. Do you think it's possible to get lost?" Draco asked, sounding quite worried.  
"I think we'll be okay, there are plenty of-"  
"Harry...that picture on the wall is moving," Draco cut him off, wide-eyed as he stared at the picture. Harry turned to look at the picture, and had to blink a few times to make sure he wasn't going mad. "This place is impossible," he marvelled. "The pictures will be able to direct us if we get lost!"  
"We are not here to give you directions." The short man in the painting huffed, his moustache vibrating on his lip. He reminded Harry of Uncle Vernon.  
"He just talked," Draco said, trying to take everything in.  
"Yes, yes he did. We should probably catch up to the others, before we get lost already!"  
They walked along another few corridors in a comfortable silence, each trying to believe that what they were seeing was real...it was even considered normal around here.  
"I wonder what lesson we have first," Harry wondered aloud.  
"I'm looking forward to Charms the most," Draco told Harry.  
"I'm excited for Transfiguration," said Harry. "When do you think we'll learn to fly?"  
"I don't know...I'm not sure I want to fly," Draco said, "it sounds dangerous."  
"It'll be fun," Harry said, "and nothing bad can happen, we'll have a teacher there and everything."  
"Will you help me?"  
"Of course I will," Harry smiled at him.  
"Thank you, Harry."  
"You should have more confidence in yourself, y'know. I'm sure you'll be great at flying!"  
Draco looked at Harry like he was the most wondrous thing alive.

-

When they finally reached the Gryffindor Common Room and had all climbed through the portrait hole, which had a fat lady sitting in a portrait demanding the password to stop anyone from another house getting in, Harry took in the room. It was circular, dimly lit by candles floating around the place, and there was a large fireplace surrounded by comfy-looking arm chairs. There were also many desks and chairs, so everyone could do their homework and have somewhere to sit when all the arm chairs were taken.  
"Welcome to your Common Room," Oliver began to speak again. "Your trunks are up in your rooms, if anyone would like to swap rooms, you are more than welcome to sort it out amongst yourselves. No-one is allowed out of the Common Room past 9pm, but there isn't really a set time to go to bed. Just make sure you get a sufficient amount of sleep to be awake for your first lesson. Breakfast is at 8am, and your timetables are on your bedside tables. If anyone has any questions about anything, you are more than welcome to ask one of us. One more thing, avoid the caretaker, Filch, at all costs. And his evil cat. Good night."  
Everyone headed to their dormitories, to unpack their trunks which had been transported to their beds by magic. Harry walked up the stairs to the boys rooms, and opened the door to find a room with four beds, one belonging to Ron and the other to a short boy with dark hair. The other two remained unoccupied, but Harry noticed his trunk at the bottom of one.  
Draco followed Harry into the dormitory, unpacking his own trunk which was at the bottom of the bed next to Harry's.  
"Hey, Ron," Harry called to Ron.  
"All right, Harry?" Ron replied. "This is Neville."  
"Hey Neville," Harry smiled, "and this is Draco."  
"Hi," Draco said quietly, as he quickly glanced at either boy, giving them a polite smile.  
"Hi, Draco," Neville and Ron said in unison.  
They talked about the huge feast and how amazing everything was at Hogwarts, and they learned that Ron was from a wizard family, and that he had three brothers here already, all older than him. Neville told them he lived with his Grandmother, and that she was a witch. Draco remained quiet, unless Harry said something to him. But he didn't say anything about his family or his home before Hogwarts.  
They went to bed not long afterwards, all feeling very worn out from their long journey on the train.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there.  
> I know that this is a ridiculously different Draco to the one we know, but just give him a chance.  
> I hope you enjoyed it, at least a little bit.  
> This is my first Harry Potter fic, and my first fic that's longer than a one-shot, so I'm sorry. I just came up with an idea and had to write it, hopefully it'll improve.  
> There will be more at some point.  
> Until then, farewell :) x


End file.
